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Banner Jones Family Law Reviews

Fees for providing evidence to support your case

At Banner Jones we cannot pay for any of the above evidence to be provided. If there is a charge for producing the evidence, we cannot pay it: you will need to meet these costs yourself and then bring the evidence to us.

Even in urgent cases, we cannot exercise our Delegated Functions and give you an emergency Legal Aid Certificate without the evidence of domestic violence or child abuse as set out above. There are standard letters that have been approved by the Ministry of Justice. For more information about this generally and to access those standard letters, click here.

Help with Family Mediation

There is a new level of Legal Aid available to help give advice to people who are going through the mediation process. This is called Help with Family Mediation. This allows us to provide you with the legal advice whilst you are going through mediation or immediately following a mediation process. You will still need to meet the normal means and merits test, but we will be able to work through this with you. You will need to bring with you the relevant form from your Mediation Service to show that you are currently going through mediation or have been in mediation within the last 3 months.

Family Assist

If you are not eliglible for Legal Aid our New Family Assist Scheme offers you a service at significantly discounted fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Non-residential parents have to pay maintenance for their children; hopefully the amount can be agreed though negotiation and if not then the CSA will decide. Each case is different. If for example the Mum and the children stay in the family home then she may relinquish her claims over any other assets such as pension and savings in return.

In England you can get divorced if your marriage has broken down irretrivably, usually proved by allegations of adultery or unreasonable behaviour, or if there has been 2 years' of continously living apart.

For most people, where there is no domestic violence within the relationship, or domestic violence that can be proved to the standard required by the Legal Aid Authority, there is no Public Funding available for Divorce, Dissolution of Civil Partnerships, financial matters and children matters.

If the bank allows, it is possible for your aunt to name you as a third party on her bank account. This will allow you to withdraw funds and sign cheques on her behalf. We can help your aunt complete the mandate form required to put this in place.

No. Sometimes it may feel as though this has happened. The aim when sharing out matrimonial assets is to be fair. Both spouses have to make full disclosure about their assets and debts before any decisions can be made about distribution, trying to hide anything won't work. Factors which are important when sharing out the assets include the current and future needs of each spouse and any dependent children; the length of marriage and the age, earning capacity and contributions of each party.

The Legal Aid Authority will accept the following evidence as domestic violence outlined in our PDF guide.

This must be provided by you before we are able to sign you up to any form of Legal Aid, unless you are looking for Help with Mediation, a Domestic Violence Injunction or Local Authority Care Proceedings relating to children.

Please note that the allegations have to be in relation to the person that you are currently having problems with. These allegations cannot be in relation to a previous or different partner as you will not qualify for Legal Aid.

Your aim should be that both parents still play an active part in the raising of the child/children. Usually parents sort this out amongst themselves, although if there are problems mediation can be a good way to resolve this. Going to Court should always be the last resort where children are involved.

Three is the lucky number for Banner Jones Solicitors as they receive ‘Leading Firm’ status in the UK Legal 500 for the third year running.

Ann-Marie Lowe, Marketing Manager comments “Being a Legal 500 firm is a great accolade for the business, and we are one of the few law firms in Chesterfield to have received a ranking. The Leading Firm status is based on our outstanding Family Law and Personal Injury teams who both received individual rankings again in 2015. The competition is always fierce across the region which makes it all the more meaningful for us to have been included.”

Getting through a divorce or separation is hard at the best of times but is often even harder when there are children involved in the relationship. Use our helpful guide for tips on explaining the situation to the children.

Testimonials

Thankyou Helena Downing for all your excellent service.

Mr & Mrs W, Alfreton

Rachel Barlow has just completed the legal arrangements in respect of my divorce. The service I received was exemplary and I wanted to write to you to let you know this. I have been pretty constrained in relation to availability to meet and most of our business has been done over email which I appreciated. Responses have been very timely, updates provided regularly, deadlines hit and fees reasonable. I contrast this with the service provided by a large law firm in Sheffield in the early part of the year and your approach and that of your staff to customer services, in my view, sets your firm apart. Your firm, and Rachel in particular, came to me through personal recommendation by a friend and I shall be happy to do the same. Thank you again.

Mr C, Sheffield

Thanks for your assistance with my case, your advice has been invaluable, and I would certainly recommend Banner Jones to my family and friends.

Mr P Sheffield

We would like to thank our solicitor acting for us Richard, he did a great job and was very easy to speak to and very friendly. Extremely professional and we would use him again in the future.

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 493083) under the Solicitors' Code of Conduct. You can access the Code by contacting the SRA, In writing to: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN. Fax: 0121 616199. Tel: 0870 6062555 (UK) +44 0121 3296800 (International) or via www.sra.org.uk.

The directors of Banner Jones Ltd are Solicitors of England and Wales.